Movable wall coke oven



Jan. 24, 1967 A. L. BOWER MOVABLE WALL COKE OVEN Filed May 1, 1964 4 Sheets-Shet 1 m mm HI 001986 Z l7! ll/lI IIIIIIIIIII I I l/I/l/l/ ATTORNEYS Jan. 24, 1967 I A. L. BOWER 3,300,391

I MOVABLE WALL COKE OVEN Filed May 1, 1964 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 16 \4 L'L \A 1% I 16 1e 2 v w M L,

VAPOR I so lNVENTOR 41 w/vl Ban/5 6 BY 2M9, M mud m ATTORNEYS Jan. 24, 1967 A. L. BOWER 3,300,391

MOVABLE WALL COKE OVEN Filed May 1, 1964 4 Sheets-Sheet 25 [L9 X J INVENTOR, A, )4: WM. Ban 5 BY flab/M, M, x mm ATTORNEYS A. L. BOWER MOVABLE WALL COKE OVEN Jan. 24, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed May 1, 1964 INVENTOR, A w/vL Eon 5E 1/ /50, 6&,

f Zw/w ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,300,391 MOVABLE WALL COKE OVEN Alvin L. Bower, 1847 17th St. SW., Allentown, Pa. 18103 Filed May 1, 1964, Ser. No. 364,335 6 Claims. (Cl. 202-105) This invention relates to improvements in a movable wall coke oven of the type exemplified in my prior Patent No. 3,073,756 granted January 15, 1963.

In such a prior type of oven, the movable walls are supported on rollers or the like for relative movement toward and away from a stationary end wall and from each other. Removable floors, which close the downwardly directed discharge openings of the respective oven v compartments defined between adjoining walls, must similarly move relatively to each other to maintain them in registry with the respective discharge openings, and means is provided for conducting the evolved vapor from one of the movable walls.

The improvements contemplated by the present invention consist first in swingably suspending the respective oven walls by flexible hangers or tension means from overhead supports, whereby relative movement of the respective walls may be carried out more smoothly than heretofore, it having been found that where each such wall may weigh-in the order of seventy tons or more, there frequently results a jerky motion of the wall where it is supported on rollers. Such a motion may cause damage to the walls.

Furthermore such suspension of I the respective walls results in a very considerable simof the movable floors for closing the discharge openings of the respective oven compartments. To this end the several floor supports may be fixedly mounted on a rigid floor frame in properly spaced relation for reception in the discharge openings of the respective oven compartments and, when operatively positioned in said openings, may be releasably supported from the stationary wall alone by suitable releasable latch means.

Further the invention includes a novel vapor offtake arrangement in accordance with which the several oven compartments communicate with each other by way of passages through the walls which define these oven compartments, the stationary wall having a vapor offtake passage and conduit communicating through an edge thereof with its said passage and thus with all of the said compartments. By virtue of the stationary status of the said wall, the construction of the vapor offtake conduit means may accordingly be considerably simplified, as contrasted to prior structure in which said conduit means communicated with a movable wall or walls.

The invention also contemplates the provision of means within the olftake conduit and/or passage for injecting steam and liquid spray thereinto to prevent the retention therein of solids which might tend to clog such passage.

In addition the invention includes specific provision for improvement of the spring bolts which exert compressive pressures on the edges of the brick or masonry sections of the respective movable walls. In particular there are provided a novel means for preventing the deflection of the free ends of such bolts by relative lateral ice displacement between portions of the outer wall frame through which said bolts are threaded, and the inner wall frame against which the free ends of said bolts bear.

In addition to the foregoing features and advantages the invention includes various other incidental features and advantages which will become apparent from a considenation of the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 s a side elevation of a movable wall coking oven unit in accordance with the invention, the upper portion of the supporting frame, including the overhead supports from which the walls are suspended, being broken away;

FIGURE 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of FIGURE 1 and, including a showing of one of the overhead supports or supporting portions of the frame, certain intervening portions of the frame structure being broken away in this view;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged detail section through one of the oven floor supporting latches and adjoining portions of the oven floor frame and the stationary wall from which said floor frame is supported;

FIGURE 4 is a. section on the line 4-4 of FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 6 is a greatly enlarged fragmentary view, partly in elevation and partly in vertical section, showing the operating links for transmitting relative movement to certain of the movable walls and the tie rods for securing the stationary wall against movement;

FIGURE 7 is an enlarged detail elevation of one of the improved spring bolt structures of the invention;

FIGURE 8 is a cross section on the line 8-8 of FIG- URE 7;

FIGURE 9 is an enlarged sectional view taken in the same plane as FIGURE 2 and showing the detailed construction of one of the wall suspension structures; and

FIGURE 10 is a view partly in elevation and partly in section of the structure show-n in FIGURE 9, being taken at right angles to the plane of FIGURE 9.

Referring now in detail to the accompanying drawings and first considering the structure illustrated in FIGURES 1 and 2, the main frame from which the movable walls are supported includes a series of rigid vertical columns 10 arranged in longitudinally spaced pairs, of which one such pair is shown in FIGURE 2. Cross beams 12 such as shown in FIGURE 2 interconnect the upper ends of and are supported by the respective pairs of columns 10 to provide support for the relatively parallel spaced longitudinal beams 14 extending horizontally between the respective end beams. These beams 12 and 14 provide an elevated frame portion or support from which each of the oven wall structures, designated by the reference characters 1 to 7, inclusive, is suspended by means such as illustrated in FIGURE 2 comprising a pair of transversely spaced flexible hangers 16 each consisting of a relatively thick metal strap or metal plate. As shown in FIGURES 9 and 10 these straps have their lower ends anchored, as by rivets 18 to tension brackets 20 respectively secured at the upper corners of the outer rigid frames 22 of the respective walls. The upper ends of the respective hangers 16 are fixedly connected to yokes, by which the hangers are suspended from the beams 14. As will be seen in FIGURES 2 and 9, each yoke 24 is of generally rectangular configuration, including a cross bar 26 resting on its associated supporting beam with side members 28 depending therefrom on opposite sides of the beam and supporting a lower cross bar 30 on which is disposed a clevis 32 to which is secured the upper end of the flexible hanger or metal strap 16.

The oven walls 1 through 7 respectivel are provided with recesses in their relatively adjoining faces so that when the walls are positioned in closed or continuous relation in engagement with each other the said recesses form a plurality of oven compartments 34 which open through the upper and lower edges of adjoining walls to be charged with coal through their upper end charging openings 36 and to permit discharge or coke through their lower end discharge openings 38.

In the preferred arrangement, the center wall 4 is maintained stationary as by tie rods 39 (FIGURES 1 and 6) securely connecting the lower edge or bottom beam 120 of its outer frame, to the fixed frame columns 10. The walls 1, 2 and 3 and 5, 6, 7 on opposite sides of the stationary wall 4 are movable toward and away from wall 4.

Each such wall, 1 through 7 inclusive, comprises a brick or masonry wall structure 40 of rectangular shape (FIG- URE 2) supported within a laterally and vertically expansible inner rectangular frame 42, said inner frame in turn being supported within a surrounding rigid outer frame 20 and in marginally spaced relation thereto at the sides and top.

The masonry or'brick structure 40 of each said wall 1 through 7 is formed in generally conventional manner to define an interior heating flues such as having opposite ends opening outwardly through an edge of the wall structure as shown in FIGURE 2 to communicate with heated combustion gas inlet and exhaust ducts 48 and 50 respectively. The duct 48 supplied the gases for heating the interior of each wall structure, whereby the heat of adjoining walls may be imparted to each of the oven compartments therebetween, thus supplying the heat for carrying out the coking operation.

As shown in FIGURES 1 and 2, the several oven compartments 34 between each adjacent pair of walls 1 through 7 are interconnected by vapor passages 52 extending through the respective said walls in alignment with each other. The said vapor passages 52 through the stationary wall 4 communicate through upwardly directed otftake passages 54 with an oiftake conduit, the structure of which may be quite simple due to the stationary disposition of the wall 4. The conduit, as shown in FIG- URE 2, in addition to the vertical section 56 extending through the upper edge of the wall in communication with the several ports or openings 54, also includes a horizontal section 58 connected by the elbow 60 to the vertical section. The elbow, as shown, may be provided with rodding holes 59 and 61 aligned with the respective conduit sections to facilitate clearing of the sections by a conventional rodding operation as required. Normally these holes are covered by removable closures as indicated.

In accordance with a special feature of the invention, in order to minimize the obstruction of the vapor otftake conduit by solid deposits or condensates from the vapor passing therethrough, there is provided within the horizontal conduit section a steam spray pipe 62 having a plurality of erforations through which steam may be emitted into the otftake conduit. In addition there may be provided liquid spray heads for delivery into said conduit of flushing liquid for dissolving or loosening and carrying away deposits as formed, and for condensing the vapors.

The relatively remote end walls are substantially strengthened and their brickwork 40 reinforced by the vertically spaced horizontal cross beams in the form of I-beams 66 extending between and projecting somewhat beyond the opposed side edges of their respective walls. During a coking operation, these relatively opposed rigid end walls 1 and 7 are positively locked against relative spreading movement to fixedly maintain the other walls 2 through 6 in contiguous or closed relation between them, the rigidity of the end walls and their interconnecting or locking means enabling the structure towithstand the expansive forces created by the heated coal within the ovens incident to the coking operation.

While the end walls 1 and 7 may be suitably releasably each coking operation or cycle.

interconnected by 'any of various expedients, I have shown for exemplification in FIGURE 1 a series of tie rods 68 slidably disposed through the projecting ends of the reinforcing beams on either side of the oven unit. Nuts 70 threaded on the said tie rods on the relatively remote sides of each pair of interconnected beams 66 may be turned into abutting engagement with their respective beams to lock the several walls in contiguous relation, while these nuts may be backed away from their associated beams in obvious manner to a sufficient distance to permit the relative spreading of the walls to the extent necessary for discharge of the coke from the various compartments upon completion of the coking operation.

It will be appreciated that in the present structure it is contemplated that the several ovens will be simultaneously charged and the coking operation will occur simultaneously, with the result that the contents of all oven compartments will be subjected to their peak expansive pressure at the same time. Thus only compressive forces will be exerted against the respective brick wall sections 40.

Movement of the respective walls into and from their closed and spread positions respectively may be caused in conventional manner. To this end there are illustrated at each end of the frame, a plurality of bell crank levers 72-76 respectively each of which is fulcrumed at 72a-76a respectively to one of the vertical frame columns 10. The respective levers of each gang or group are linked together for equal simultaneous operative movement by rigid links 77 such as illustrated. Also, said levers 7246 are operatively connected to the movable walls by links 7884 respectively, as in FIGURES l and 6, to their respective said levers at uniformly spaced intervals from the fulcrum points thereof in a manner to result in simultaneous movement of the respective walls through accurately proportioned distances such that the distance between each adjoining pair of said walls is at all times uniform. Since the construction and operation of such levers and linkages is known to those skilled in the art, they are but briefly described herein. Operating power for the production of such movement may be transmitted to the operating arm of one of the interconnected levers from any suitable power source by means of a rigid link as shown in FIGURE 1.

Though the linkage structure is shown in FIGURE 1 as it appears on one side only of the oven unit, it will be appreciated that such structure is identically duplicated on the opposite side thereof, for which reason it is deemed unnecessary to provide a separate showing.

For closing the lower end openings of the respective oven compartments there are provided a plurality of floors 86 which are aflixed to a rigid supporting floor frame 88 including relatively opposed side rails 90 exemplified as I-beams interconnected by cross ties 92 which are secured transversely across said side rails.

The spacing between the respective floors 86 is similar to the spacing between the respective downwardly directed discharge openings 38 of the oven compartments which receive said floors when the walls are operatively positioned in contiguous or closed relationship as shown in FIGURE 1. For handling of the floor frame 88 there is provided a wheeled car or truck platform 98 of a hydraulically or pneumatically actuated elevator or hoist which may be controlled to raise the floors to insert each floor into its respective discharge opening after the movement of the car 94 along the rails 96 has brought the floors into vertical registry with the respective openings.

The rails 96 also may guide a suitable quenching car (not shown) into and from operative position beneath the respective walls 1 through 7 to receive the coke discharged from the respective compartments at the conclusion of It is therefore necessary after removing and lowering the floor frame 88 to the position shown in FIGURE 1 at the end of each coking along the rails so-that the quenching car may be brought into operative position.

After the car 94 and its elevator means 98 have raised the floor frame 88 to proper operative position for reception of the respective floors 86 in the discharge openings 38 prior to the recharging of each oven compartment with fresh coal, the floor frame 88 may be locked and retained in its operative position by 'a suitable latch means such as illustrated in FIGURES 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the drawings. Such latch means as shown in FIGURE 2 are supported by housings 102 affixed to the horizontal bottom beam 120 of the stationary wall 4 on opposite sides of the oven floor frame and include latch plungers 100 for projection between the vertically opposed flanges of the side rails of said frame. Such plungers 100 are in relatively longitudinally spaced pairs as shown in FIGURE 4, each such pair being respectively guided through sleeves in its associated housing 102. Each such pair of plungers 100 is connected by a tie plate 104 for simultaneous actuation under the control of a pneumatic or hydraulic piston and cylinder unit 106, the piston rod 108 of which is connected to said tie plate as shown. The pressurized fluid may be conduits 109 and 110 such as shown in FIGURE 3 under the control of a conventional reversing valve, not shown.

It is desirable to provide means for ensuring accurate registry of the respective floors with their respective discharge openings incident to their upward movement into said openings. Accordingly there may be provided on the bottom beam 120 of the stationary wall frame 4 one or more relatively spaced centering guides such as shown in FIGURES 3 and 5, including relatively upwardly converging guide plates 112 reinformed by relatively perpendicularly disposed webs 114 and adapted for guiding reception of similarly upwardly .converging pilot means 116 aflixed to the floor frame 88, the coaction between each relatively upwardly converging pilot and guide serving to accurately center the floor frame to cause its several floors to accurately register with the respective discharge openings.

' In order to provide a fluid tight connection between each pair of adjoining walls 1 through 7 to prevent escape of the vapor from the oven compartments defined therebetween, there will normally be provided a conventional marginal sealing means between each such adjoining pair of walls. Similarly a suitable seal is provided between each of the doors and the discharge opening in which it is received. Since such seals constitute no part of the present invention and are fully illustrated and described in my prior Patent No. 3,073,756 of January 15, 1963, they are not illustrated herein.

In accordance with a further specific feature of the invention each of the spring bolts 122 employed for exerting a resilient compressive force on the inner frame of each wall, and its combination thereof with the rest of the wall structure is particularly devised in a manner to avoid the exertion on such bolt of bending stresses such as might be produced due to relative lateral movement between the inner and outer frame members with which each such spring bolt is associated.

Thus referring to FIGURE 2 of the drawings it will be seen that the bottom horizontal member or plate 118 of each inner frame 42 rests on the corresponding bottom beam 120 of its associated outer frame 22 and is free to expand and contract on such 'bottom beam. The vertical side members of the inner frame are fixedly connected or anchored against relative vertical movement to the bottom frame member, while the top frame member 126 is laterally or horizontally expansible and contractable from an anchor point medially of its length, said anchor point being defined by an upwardly projecting stud 128 fixed to the top frame member and vertically slidably disposed through an opening in the top beam of the counter frame 22 whereby to permit free vertical expansion and contraction of the inner frame and the masonry wall 40 which it contacts in heat exchanging relation.

Secured to the top inner frame member 126 closely adjacent its anchor point as by the bolts and spacer sleeve shown in FIGURES 7 and 8, are, the guide plates such as 134 which extend in spaced parallel relation to the top member 126 of the inner frame but out of contact with said frame or the brickwork therein so as to be subject to approximately the same thermal expansion and contraction as the top beam of the outer frame 22. Moreover the guide plates 134 are of a material having the same coeflicient of thermal expansion as the material of the outer frame 22. Said anchor plate carries suitably disposed and located guide sleeves or bearings 136 through each of which the free end portion of a spring bolt 122 is freely slidably disposed. An arcuately curved leaf spring 138 at the free end of the spring bolt and rotatable thereon is thrust into varying degrees of resilient thrusting engagement with the top frame member 126 by rotary adjustment of the bolt through its threaded connection to the outer frame 22, such connection if desired being formed by a nut 140 welded to the outer frame in alignment with a bore therethrough through which the bolt is disposed.

The construction and operation of each of the spring bolts 122 along the vertical sides of each wall is substantially as above described, except that the guide plate 134' for each side is anchored to its respective side rail member 124 closely adjacent the lower end thereof, adjacent the location where each said side frame member is an chored against vertical movement to the bottom member.

It will be readily apparent that because of the above arrangement and disposition of the anchor plates and guide sleeves or hearing each such guide plate 134, 134 will expand and contract from its anchor point substantially to the same extent as the relatively parallel outer frame beam with which it is associated, so that a guide sleeve at any given point on said plate will maintain the free end of its bolt against deflection despite thermal expansion and contraction at different rates of the inner and outer frames. By virtue of this arrangement it becomes possible to use a much lighter and smaller diameter bolt than is possible where the bolt is called upon to withstand lateral deflection or bending stresses as well as thrusting forces.

In the operation of the invention, with the oven walls 1 through 7 in their relatively contiguous closed relation, and with the floors 86 operatively supported in the lower discharge openings 38 of the respective oven compartments, the said compartments may be each charged with coal from a lorry (not shown) running along the rails 142 above the respective walls. Charging ports may be provided and the charging operation accomplished in substantially the same manner disclosed in my prior Patent No. 3,073,756. Then with the nuts 70 threaded on the tie rods 68 into secure engagement with the relatively opposed end wall beams 66 to lock the walls against spreading, the walls and the oven compartments therebetween are heated by the passage of hot gases through the heating fiues in the walls in accordance with usual practice. The vapors given off incident to the coking operation will be discharged through the intercommunicating compartments 34 and passages 52 for withdrawal through the ofltake duct 56-58. By virtue of the steam and liquid injectors 62 and 64 in duct 58, the deposit of solid materials therein will be maintained at a minimum as will the cleaning or rodding periods required to maintain same in operation.

At the conclusion of the coking operation, to discharge the coke from the respective ovens, the bottom door frame 88 is released by actuation of the latch means for reception on the elevator platform 98 carried by the car 94, following which the car is withdrawn from beneath the walls to make way for the quenching car.

After withdrawal of the quenching car along the tracks 96 the levers and linkages are actuated to return the walls 1 through 7 to their relative contiguous positions, whereupon the floor flame 88 is then again moved beneath the 3 Walls and elevated into operative position for reception of the floors in the respective discharge openings 38 where they will be accurately centered in the last stages of their upward movement by the guide and pilot means earlier described and will be secured in their operative position by the latching means 100.

In this application I have shown and described only the preferred embodiment of the invention simply by way of illustration of the practice of the invention. However it will be recognized that the invention is capable of other and different embodiments and that its various details may be altered or modified in many obvious manners all without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the accompanying claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

I. A movable wall coking oven comprising a rigid frame including an elevated frame portion, a plurality of vertically disposed relatively parallel oven walls suspended from said elevated frame portion at a substantial distance therebelow, said walls being in horizontal alignment and including a stationary wall and a plurality of relatively horizontally movable walls on opposite sides of said stationary wall, relatively adjoining pairs of said walls defining between them oven compartments having downwardly directed discharge openings, flexible hangers suspending said walls from said elevated frame portion, means interconnected between said frame and the stationary wall to restrain the latter against movement, selectively operative means for moving the said walls on opposite sides of said stationary wall toward and away from said wall into and from relatively closed and relatively spread positions, selectively operable means interconnecting said end walls for positively retaining said walls in their closed position against relative spreading movement, and an oven floor frame releasably carried by said stationary wall, said floor frame extending in opposite lateral directions from said stationary wall beneath all of the other said walls and having thereon a plurality of floors positioned for closing reception in the respective discharge openings, and means for releasably securing said floor frame to the stationary wall with the floors disposed in the respective openings.

2. A movable wall coking oven as defined in claim 1, in which said means for releasably securing the floor frame to said stationary wall comprises cooperating latch means carried by the said stationary wall and the floor frame respectively, said floor frame being supported sole- 1y by the stationary wall.

3. A movable coking oven as defined in claim 2, including lateral centering means carried respectively by the floor frame and the stationary wall for securing lateral registry of the oven floors with respect to the said discharge openings incident to vertical movement of the floors and frame toward said discharge openings, said floors being fixedly secured on the floor frame.

4. A movable wall coking oven comprising a rigid frame, a plurality of vertically disposed relatively parallel walls and flexible hangers suspending the respective said walls from said frame at a substantial distance therebelow and in relative horizontal alignment, means for relatively urging said walls into closed position in engagement with each other and for spreading them apart to open position, said walls in their closed position defining between each pair of relatively adjacent such walls an oven compartment having a downwardly directed discharge opening, a floor frame releasably supported solely by one of said walls, and a plurality of floors carried by said frame for closing reception in each of the said discharge openings.

5. An oven wall construction comprising inner and out er metal frames having relatively parallel spaced portions anchored to each other at predetermined points against relative lateral displacement, said frame portions being thermally expansible and contractable relative to each other from their respective anchoring points, a spring bolt threaded transversely through one said portion into endwise transverse thrusting engagement with the other said portion at a location spaced along said portions from a given said anchor point, a guide plate affixed to the other said portion closely adjacent said given anchor point and extending parallel and in spaced relation to said other point from said given anchor point to a location abreast of said bolt, and a bearing carried by said plate at said last mentioned location for sliding reception of said bolt, said guide plate having substantially the same coefiicient of expansion as said one frame portion and subjected to substantially the same temperatures as said one frame portion to support said bolt against deflection about its threaded connection to said one portion.

6. The combination as defined in claim 5, including a spring means carried at the end of said bolt for transmitting a resilient thrust from the bolt against the other frame portion.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 5/1941 Puening 202 1/1963 Bower 202-105 

1. A MOVABLE WALL COKING OVEN COMPRISING A RIGID FRAME INCLUDING AN ELEVATED FRAME PORTION, A PLURALITY OF VERTICALLY DISPOSED RELATIVELY PARALLEL OVEN WALLS SUSPENDED FROM SAID ELEVATED FRAME PORTION AT A SUBSTANTIAL DISTANCE THEREBELOW, SAID WALLS BEING IN HORIZONTAL ALIGNMENT AND INCLUDING A STATIONARY WALL AND A PLURALITY OF RELATIVELY HORIZONTALLY MOVABLE WALLS ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF SAID STATIONARY WALL, RELATIVELY ADJOINING PAIRS OF SAID WALLS DEFINING BETWEEN THEM OVEN COMPARTMENTS HAVING DOWNWARDLY DIRECTED DISCHARGE OPENINGS, FLEXIBLE HANGERS SUSPENDING SAID WALLS FROM SAID ELEVATED FRAME PORTION, MEANS INTERCONNECTED BETWEEN SAID FRAME AND THE STATIONARY WALL TO RESTRAIN THE LATTER AGAINST MOVEMENT, SELECTIVELY OPERATIVE MEANS FOR MOVING THE SAID WALLS ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF SAID STATIONARY WALL TOWARD AND AWAY FROM SAID WALL INTO AND FROM RELATIVELY CLOSED AND RELATIVELY SPREAD POSITIONS, SELECTIVELY OPERABLE MEANS INTERCONNECTING SAID END WALLS FOR POSITIVELY RETAINING SAID WALLS IN THEIR CLOSED POSITION AGAINST RELATIVE SPREADING MOVEMENT, AND AN OVEN FLOOR FRAME EXTENDING IN OPPOSITE LATERAL DIRECTIONS FROM SAID STATIONARY WALL BENEATH ALL OF THE OTHER SAID WALLS AND HAVING THEREON A PLURALITY OF FLOORS POSITIONED FOR CLOSING RECEPTION IN THE RESPECTIVE DISCHARGE OPENINGS, AND MEANS FOR RELEASABLY SECURING SAID FLOOR FRAME TO THE STATIONARY WALL WITH THE FLOORS DISPOSED IN THE RESPECTIVE OPENINGS. 